Anyone who has watched cable news and cable weather news channels during the spring and summer has probably heard of Tornado Alley. It’s the area in the middle of the country including the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and depending on who’s map you view also includes parts of Nebraska, Missouri and into the Dakota’s. This area traditionally gets the highest concentration of tornadoes every year. But over the last decade or so there has been another region of the country that has started to experience a greater number of tornadoes each year. Perhaps even more alarming, is that this region is beginning to see an increase in the number of violent and long-track tornadoes creating more damage and higher numbers of casualties and fatalities in recent years as well as deadly tornado outbreaks. This area is known as Dixie Alley.

As one might guess, this area of the country is located along and south of the Mason-Dixon line and generally includes parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. So what makes this area an unlucky rising star on the weather event stage?

There are many factors that come together to make Dixie Alley such a dangerous place during storm season. One of the biggest factors is the fact that this area of the country is consistently warmer throughout the year. While they may have cold snaps and cooler temperatures in the winter months, it is not as cold and the cold spells do not last as long as they do farther north and west in the Plains. There is also a more consistent supply of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico available throughout the year. These two factors make for a longer “storm season” and a greater chance for severe weather outbreaks during the rest of the year as well. In fact, much of Dixie Alley has a second peak of tornado occurrences during the fall months that Tornado Alley does not see as much (though tornadoes have been documented during every month of the year here too). Along with warmer temperatures creating a longer severe weather season, it also equates to warmer nights which means that tornadoes occur during the dark nighttime hours more frequently here than in Tornado Alley. This is very dangerous for people as it makes it harder to spot tornadoes, funnels and other storm formations during the night, and if one does not have a weather radio or other means of getting emergency weather information you may sleep through the warning and not be able to reach a safe place in time.

Dixie Alley is also known to be hilly and/or heavily forested throughout much of it. This makes it very difficult for people who are spotting, chasing or just outside in general to have a good view of the sky to see any potential storm features that would indicate possible severe weather and tornado formation. You must rely on radar to pick up rotational features in the storm, and by that time a tornado may already be on the ground. This area of the country is also home to a much higher concentration of manufactured homes. Theses houses, due to the nature of their construction are much more vulnerable to destruction during high winds and tornadoes like mobile homes are and there are many times that these houses do not have basements or shelters. Dixie Alley has been noted for having many outbreaks of severe weather and tornadoes, including the Super Outbreak in April 2011 that killed more than 300 people and injured countless others with several violent long-track tornadoes over a span of 3 days. As you can see, if you live in this area of the country it is vital that you have some sort of shelter to take cover in! If you live here and do not have a basement or other shelter, you need to look at investing into a storm shelter from TornadoShelter.com! It could very well save you and your family’s lives!

In the last several years the thrill seeking sport, if you will, of storm chasing has exploded in popularity. Storm chasing has been around for over 50 years, with the first credited chaser being David Hoadley in North Dakota in 1956. Since then the field has expanded to include teams of scientists from universities and government entities trying to collect data, and teams or individuals who chase for hobby or entertainment. There are even companies who offer storm chasing excursions as well. Storm chasing began to pick up in the 1970's when the University of Oklahoma partnered with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) to create the Tornado Intercept Project, then again in the early-mid 1990's and 2009-2010 with the Vortex and Vortex 2 projects which partnered several university teams with the NSSL and other crews all in hopes of gathering data from a tornado to help forecasters better predict when and where tornadoes would form. Outside of teams and projects like these, most storm chasers are amateurs who do it for the thrill and adrenaline rush. Some chasers can make money by selling photos and video to media outlets, but most chasers actually lose money as it is an expensive hobby to undertake. In addition to storm chasers there are also individuals known as trained weather spotters. These people have taken special training classes from the National Weather Service to spot severe storms that may produce tornadoes or other hazardous weather events. Spotters may or may not be chasers as well.

Storm chasing is often something that is glamourized by Hollywood. It is seen as very adventurous and even heroic and while this may be the case sometimes, more often than not it is a dangerous past-time that has gotten many people injured and even killed. There are many inherent dangers to storm chasing and even professional meteorologists and scientists are injured and killed doing this. The most obvious danger is the possibility of catching the tornado you are chasing (or more likely being caught by the tornado you are chasing). The majority of chasing is done in rural areas which means there are few places in which to seek shelter other than a ditch or culvert, neither of which are very safe. Another danger that chasers face is lightning. Many chasers are out in remote areas with little else around them, making them the tallest objects and a good electrical conductor. Flooding can also be a major risk for those out in the field. It's easy to underestimate the amount of water on a roadway when you are trying to chase or frantically trying to outrun a storm, and it only takes a few inches of water to wash away a vehicle. Hail and dangerously high winds are also a threat to chasers as they can smash windshields and toss or overturn vehicles.

More recently in some instances, hobby chasers have become a danger to others in the community as well as themselves. There have been several occurrences where hobby chasers with no training have gotten themselves into trouble by getting caught in the storm and needing assistance from law enforcement, emergency medical services, etc, potentially putting these people now in harm's way and/or wasting resources needed by a community just devastated by a storm. Amateurs looking for a thrill or cool photo opportunity have been known to clog roadways, obstructing roads for EMS, law enforcement, utility companies, etc hindering their work and potentially harming others as well. For these and other reasons, it has always been strongly recommended that amateur chasers stay home and seek shelter during a tornado and leave the chasing if there is any to the professionally trained scientists.